Birds of a Feather
by Quillian
Summary: One shot!  An odd tale of friendship between a human and a Yeerk...


**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own _Animorphs_. K.A. Applegate does, along with all the other books she's written or is currently writing.

**NOTE:** This is a story about a human-Controller and an overall "nice" Yeerk, who eventually form a unique and unusual friendship between alien species.

_This story is dedicated to **Anifan1**, whose stories about peaceful Yeerks have been an inspiration for this._

* * *

**_  
"Birds of a Feather,"_**

_By Quillian_

* * *

My name is Charlie.

I can't tell you my full name. Well, I guess I could, but it really doesn't matter, so that's irrelevant.

I was a Controller during the Yeerk War, for nearly a year before it ended.

It started out when some customers of mine mentioned this club called The Sharing (I run a pet store). I was a twenty-three year old guy with nothing really better to do, so I decided to check it out.

I went in not suspecting a thing, and came out a few hours later with an alien parasitic slug wrapped around my brain, controlling my brain.

Was I panicking and such? Oh yes, I sure as heck was.

(Get out, get out!) I repeated in my head for the umpteenth time as "I" exited the building.

(WILL YOU PLEASE STOP YELLING AT ME AND LET ME EXPLAIN?) the Yeerk yelled. After I quieted down for a moment, he said, Thank you, that's much better.

After a brief pause, he explained. (My name is Othnir 132 of the Sulp Niar pool. I was assigned to infest you because I was ordered to, and since I am a member of the secret Peace Movement, I had to keep up with appearances. Visser Three, who's leading the invasion of Earth, is not someone to be crossed.)

(Nice to meet you, Othnir whatever-the-heck-your-number-is. Now would you please kindly remove yourself from my head and never bug me again?)

(I'm afraid it's not quite that simple, Charlie. Would you rather be rid of me and be stuck with a Yeerk who actually is cruel to his host? This may surprise you, but about ten percent or less of all Yeerks are actually sadists and cruel to their hosts. Somehow, I don't think you'd want to take your chances.)

Here I let out a frustrated mental sigh.

(Look… I can tell you don't want to be in this situation, and quite frankly, neither do I. But I think we're going to have to make the best of a bad situation.)

(You're right I don't want you attached to my brain, controlling my every move.)

(Having a Yeerk controlling you is not half as bad as some of the things some humans do to themselves, like smoking, drinking, driving recklessly…)

(Point taken.)

And thus, I came to know Othnir 132.

Three days later, he returned to the Yeerk pool while I claimed to be a "voluntary" host. This meant I could relax in a separate room with other voluntary hosts as opposed to being locked up in a cage with the other involuntary hosts. Good thing they installed soundproof glass for that purpose.

Othnir was a scientist, so he spent some of his time fiddling with alien devices designed to do different things. I couldn't help but come to have a slight respect for him, for in several ways, he was similar to me. He was normally quiet, self-reserved, good-natured, intelligent and curious.

It turned out, quite like he said, that not all Yeerks were evil body snatchers. Only a small percent were that cruel (but since they were the ones who became Yeerk military officers called Vissers, Sub-Vissers, etc., it was wise not to mess with them); most Yeerks were nice or otherwise not cruel to their hosts (they didn't want to put up with all the resistance and screaming); a few Yeerks found the whole experience of controlling another creature to be sickening or awful, and were quite content to live in a Yeerk pool their entire lives, and only a handful were actually allergic to some species of potential hosts.

Then again, as Othnir pointed out to me, it would be just as stereotypical to say that all Andalites were arrogant fighters, all Hork-Bajir were stupid herbivores, all Taxxons were subservient cannibals, all humans were bizarre and violent, etc.

We did help, though, to make things easier for the so-called "Andalite bandits" who frequently made things difficult, causing VIsser Three (who eventually became Visser One) to make things escalate. Lax security, among other things, got blamed on other Yeerks, who later suffered through Kandrona starvation.

Strangely, even while things were heating up, Othnir and I managed to become "friends," in a sense. Being something of an intellectual like me, he enjoyed learning of things throughout Earth's culture and history. He particularly enjoyed science fiction (although, ironically enough, this whole experience didn't make it seem so much like fiction anymore).

(Well, I could certainly relate to that story,) Othnir declared one day as "we" put away my copy of the classic _Ender's Game_, by Orson Scott Card.

(No doubt,) I replied with a chuckle.

After a moment of silence, Othnir spoke up again.

(Charlie?)

(Hm?)

(Listen… we both know that things are going to come to a head sooner or later, with Visser One going all-out. I just want to let you know now that I'm grateful for having met you and gotten along with you like we have. What's that old saying, something about birds of a feather flocking together? While this may not be a symbiotic relationship we're both in, I'm still grateful nonetheless.)

I was shocked. I was also touched.

(Um… thank you, Othnir. Likewise, it's certainly been an interesting experience with you too.)

A month later, things finally came to a conclusion. The "Andalite bandits" (just a bunch of morphable teenagers!) managed to get the best of Visser One. The war was over; Earth had won.

Each Yeerk was given a choice: Surrender and become a _nothlit_ in another animal's form through Andalite morphing technology, or put up resistance and suffer the consequences. At best, the Yeerks would probably surrender and all be exiled back to their homeworld; at worst, the Andalites would probably wipe them all out. Fortunately, it turned out to be the former.

Finally, Othnir would leave my head forever and take up the offer to become a _nothlit_. (Well, I guess this is it. Farewell, Charlie. Take care of yourself.)

(You too, Othnir 132.)

With that, we parted company forever, never to see each other again.

Or so I thought…

Some months later, I was working again in my fixed-up and repaired pet shop, watching the news about trading with the Andalites. It turned out that we humans would be trading candy, donuts, cookies and cinnamon buns in exchange for technological upgrades for commercial purposes. I had to admit, the idea to trade junk food for alien technology was so absurd that I laughed for nearly an hour nonstop after I heard about it.

At least I was able to sober myself up when a delivery man came in with a big green parrot in a cage.

"This is for you, sir."

I was confused and perplexed, but I accepted the parrot anyway. After the delivery guy left, I wondered out loud, "What am I going to do with this bird?"

The bird then spoke up. "Sorry, Charlie, but like I told you before, birds of a feather flock together."

I jolted, feeling _déjà vu_ from hearing him say that…

"Besides, would you really have the heart to sell off your old pal Othnir 132?"

Then I fell over from shock.

After I got up, I wanted to go over to him, but I wasn't sure if I was going to hug him or strangle him.

"Oh please, don't look so surprised. I didn't exactly have to pull an Odysseus and hide myself in a giant wooden horse, then wait for you to do like the Trojans did and drag me in. As you can see, I acquired a parrot. I now leave on a healthy diet of crackers and nuts, can fly, also talk, and live a nice long life. It's certainly better than smuggling in a portable Kandrona, putting me in a fish tank placed over it, and telling your customers that I'm a really ugly fish."

I laughed at that one.

"So, Charlie, what's new?"

"Well, I've decided to keep you as a friend, just like before…"

"Best news I've heard all day!" Othnir declared, spreading out his wings.

"Well, I could go on and on of what's happened since when we were together last, but there's time for that later. So, Othnir, want something to eat? How about crackers and nuts?"

* * *

**_  
FIN_**

A/N: So how was this?

Note about the names: Charlie was named after Charles Darwin. "Othnir" is an anagram of _ornith_, which is Greek for "bird," and an Egyptian vulture can live for up to 132 years, which was where I got the idea for his numerical designation.

Note about the _Ender's Game_ reference: This book is a classic and one of my favorite sci-fi sagas of all time, not to mention definitely worth reading. I felt it was a good allusion, since I can draw some parallels between the _Ender_ cycle and the _Animorphs_ series. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the _Ender_ cycle was one of Applegate's sources of inspiration for her bestselling series.

I'm planning a long, mutli-chapter Animorphs fanfic sometime in the future, but I guess I'll have to see how that one turns out… _–__Quillian_


End file.
